Beijing produces videos glorifying terrorist attacks on 'arrogant' US

THE Chinese state-run propaganda machine is cashing in on the terror attacks in New York and Washington, producing books, films and video games glorifying the strikes as a humbling blow against an arrogant nation.

Video discs filled with lurid images along with dramatic opera music and even the theme from Jaws have flooded the nation's markets in the wake of the attacks.

Disc after disc bear the imprimatur of the Communist Party-controlled media. The most popular DVDs have been produced by the Xinhua information agency, Beijing Television and China Central Television.

Communist Party officials say President Jiang Zemin has obsessively watched and re-watched pictures of the aircraft crashing into the World Trade Centre. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, workers at Beijing Television worked round-the-clock to produce a documentary they called Attack America.

Scenes from Hollywood films have been spliced between shots of the events of September 11, including footage from the 1998 remake of Godzilla, in which a monster destroys New York buildings.

As rescue workers pick through the rubble of the twin towers, the commentator proclaims that the city had reaped the consequences of decades of American bullying of weaker nations.

He said: "This is the America the whole world has wanted to see. Blood debts have been repaid in blood. America has bombed other countries and used its hegemony to deny the natural rights of others without paying the price. Who until now has dared to avenge the hurts inflicted by unaccountable Americans."

Officials at Beijing Television defended the video as an educational film that will meet market demand. A producer said: "There's this need for more information on world terrorism in the market, so we've got to meet it."

At the country's most respected bookstore, Xinhua Book Shop on Beijing's busiest shopping street, Wanfujing, crowds jockeyed around a table to buy discs. According to staff, thousands of copies of the video have been sold in the past month.

The shop assistant said: "Before people were interested in the movies but this is more compelling. What happened in New York could have happened in a movie but this is real life. It's better."

The many shops that stock pirated DVDs compiled in China and Hong Kong report that their most popular products are similar productions that use video graphics to show the United States suffering other damaging attacks on its tallest buildings and military installations.

On the unofficial films the commentary is even more callous: "Look at the panic in their faces as they wipe off the dust and crawl out of their strong buildings - now just a heap of rubble. We will never fear these people again, they have been shown to be soft-bellied paper tigers."

Elsewhere music shops are selling out of a bootleg version of the summer's top pop hit. The amended song implies that America deserves to suffer for its disregard for the point of view of countries weaker than itself.

The refrain says: "We guys are all Americans, our government is used to bullying people. We guys always have our hands on too much, this time our own people got hurt."

Juval, I don't know why you are so ZANY about China, but let me clue you in on a few things. China is not all that fantastic, and it is loaded with many serious problems. It's "destiny" is not exactly a sure thing, at least, not what you refer to as heading for the dominant economic power of Asia. And your arrogance is symptomatic of Chinese Communist arrogance, which is not out of the woods yet, by any means.

Let's review some of the serious issues facing China today:

(1) The Communist Chinese Legal system is one of the most primitive and juvenile systems known in the world; it is a complex amalgamation of custom and statute, largely criminal law and rudimentary civil code that has been in effect since January 1, 1987. New legal codes have been in effect since January 1, 1980. Continuing efforts are constantly being made to improve the civil, administrative, criminal, and commercial law. In other words, it does not make any cogent sense. If any business needed some type of legal resolution, that convoluted and idiotic judicial system would choke them;

(2) The Falungong sect and the China Democracy Party are considered serious threats and potential rivals to the People's Republic of China, and could seriously harm the government there, or any of the foreign businesses which find themslves unlucky enough to invest money there;

(3) In late 1978 the Chinese leadership began moving the economy from a sluggish Soviet-style centrally planned economy to a more market-oriented system. The authorities switched to a system of household responsibility in agriculture in place of the old collectivization, and increased the authority of local officials and plant managers in industry, permitted a wide variety of small-scale enterprise in services and light manufacturing, and opened the economy to increased foreign trade and investment. On the darker side, the leadership has often experienced, in its hybrid system, the worst results of socialism (bureaucracy and lassitude) and of capitalism (windfall gains and stepped-up inflation). Beijing thus has periodically backtracked, having to retighten central controls at numerous and unstable intervals. The government has had a hellish time (a) collecting revenues due from provinces, businesses, and individuals; (b) reducing corruption and other economic crimes; and (c) even keeping afloat the large state-owned enterprises, many of which have been shielded from competition by subsides and have been losing the ability to pay full wages and pensions. From 80 to 120 million surplus rural workers are adrift between the villages and the cities, many subsisting through part-time low-paying jobs. Popular resistance, changes in central policy, and loss of authority by rural cadres have weakened China's population control program, which is essential to maintaining growth in living standards. Another long-term threat to continued rapid economic growth is the deterioration in the environment, notably air pollution, soil erosion, and the steady fall of the water table especially in the north. China continues to lose arable land because of erosion and economic development. Weakness in the global economy in 2001 could cripple growth in exports;

(4) Communist China has as many as 16% of its population below the poverty line (1999 est.) - I thought Communism was supposed to take care of that completely? I mean, you ARE giving up all of your basic and fundamental human rights in exchange for economic security, aren't you?

(5) The Communist Chinese labor force is by far one of the least skilled forces in the entire world, and will be unable to compete with the modern technologically savvy Western world. - by occupation, the PRC divides its people into agriculture 50%, industry 24%, and services 26%. Where are your techies? Your geeks? Your innovators? Your artists? You get the idea. Most of the labor force in the PRC are as skilled as the local burger flipper at the corner Burger King;

(6) The unemployment rate in the PRC is staggering for a Communist nation that supposedly can cure all of society's ills: urban unemployment is roughly 18%, and there is substantial unemployment and underemployment in rural areas;

(7) Although China's exports are $232 billion a year, it's imports clock in at about $197 billion. You may think that's just fabulous, but wait until you get a load of the fact that Communist China's external debt is a whopping $162 billion. Guess that eats into their profits a little bit, huh;

(8) The PRC's roadways are still primitive - highway total is 1.4 million km, but the paved ones are only 271,300 km, while unpaved dirt roads dominate the landscape at 1,128,700 km;

(9) The PRC seems to have a military beef with nearly everyone. They have more enemies than any country I have ever heard of, and each one of them wants a piece of China's ass. Some examples of these China-hating countries include (a) India - most of the boundary with India is in dispute, (b) Russia - there is a dispute over at least two small sections of the boundary with Russia that remains to be settled, despite a 1997 boundary agreement, (c) Tajikstan, where large portions of the boundary with Tajikistan are indefinite, (d) North Korea, where a 33-km section of boundary with North Korea in the Paektu-san (mountain) area is indefinite, (e) Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, and possibly Brunei involved in a complex dispute over the Spratly Islands, (f) Vietnam (man you are going to love those guys) with disputes in maritime boundary agreements in the Gulf of Tonkin, awaiting ratification, (g) the Paracel Islands occupied by China, but claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan, (h) claims by Japanese-administered Senkaku-shoto (Senkaku Islands/Diaoyu Tai), and finally, your old buddy (i) Taiwan, which detests China unmistakably;

(10) Another wonderful problem the PRC faces is the illicit drug market. The PRC is a major trans-shipment point for heroin produced in the Golden Triangle, producing massive criminal acticity and murders, and Communist China has an unprecedented and growing domestic drug abuse problem. The PRC is also the world's leader in the supply of such illegal substances as chemical precursors and methamphetamine.

So you see, Juval, life ain't completely rosy for the PRC either.

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